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ADDRESS 



OF THE 



HON. EDWARD'EVERETT, 

Secretary of State, %\^ 

At the Anniversary of the Am. Col. Society, 18th Jan., 1853. 



Mr. President and Gent, of the Col. Soc'y : — 

It was my intention when I was 
requested some weeks ago, to 
take a part in the proceedings of 
this evening, to give to the suhject 
of the Colonization Society and its 
operations on the coast of Africa, 
the most thorough examination in 
my power, in all its bearings, con- 
sidering that, whether we look to the 
condition of this country or the in- 
terests of Africa, no more important 
object could engage our attention. 
But during almost the whole of the 
interval that has since elapsed, my 
time and my thoughts have been so 
entirely taken up and pre-occupied, 
that it has been altogether out of 
my power to give more than the 
hastiest preparation to the part which 
I am to take in this evening's pro- 
ceedings. I am therefore obliged 
to throw myself upon the indulgence 
of this audience, with such a hasty 
view of the subject as I have been 
alone able to take. 

The Colonization Society seems 
to me to have been the subject of 
much unmerited odium, of much 
equally unmerited indifference on 
the part of the great mass of the 
community, and to have received 
that attention which it so well 
deserves, from but very few. We 
regard it now only in its infancy. 
All that we see in this country 



is the quiet operation of a private 
association, pursuing the even 
tenor of its way without osten- 
tation, without eclat ; and on the 
coast of Africa there is nothing to 
attract our attention but a small set- 
tlement, the germ of a Republic, 
which, however prosperous, is but 
still in its infancy. 

But before we deride even these 
small beginnings — before we make 
up our minds that the most import- 
ant futurities are not wrapped up in 
them, even as the spreading oak is 
wrapped up in the small acorn 
which we can hold in our fingers, 
we should do well to recollect the 
first twenty-five or thirty years of 
the settlement at Jamestown, in 
your State, Mr. President, the par- 
ent of Virginia. We should do 
well to remember the history of that 
dreadful winter at Plymouth, when 
more than half of the Mayflower's 
little company were laid beneath the 
sod, and that sod smoothed over for 
fear the native savage would come 
and count the number of the graves. 
I think if you look to what has been 
done in Liberia in the last quarter 
of a century, you will find that it 
compares favorably with the most 
and the best that wr.s done in "Vir- 
ginia or in Plymouth, during the 
same period. These seem to me 
to be reasons why we should not 






look with too much distrust at the 
small beginnings that have been 
made. 

Gentlemen, the foundation of this 
Society was laid in a great political 
and moral necessity. The measures 
which were taken for the suppres- 
sions of the slave trade naturally led 
to the capture of slave-ships, and 
the question immediately arose 
what should be done with the vic- 
tims that were rescued from thern. 
It was necessary that they should be 
returned to Africa. They could not, 
each and all, be sent to their native 
villages. They had been collected 
from the whole interior of that coun- 
try, many of them 2,000 miles in 
the interior, and it was out of the 
question that they should, immedi- 
ately be sent to their homes. If they 
had been placed upon the coast, 
in a body, at any of the usual 
points of resort, the result would 
have been to throw them at once 
back again into the grasp of the na- 
tive chiefs who are the principal 
agents of the slave trade. It was, 
therefore, absolutely necessary, if 
the course of measures undertaken 
for the suppression of the slave trade 
was to be pursued, that some Col- 
ony should be founded, under the 
name and influence and patronage 
of a powerful European or American 
State, where these poor victims 
should be placed at once, safely 
protected, supplied with necessary 
provisions of all kinds, civilized if 
possible, and by degrees enabled to 
find their way back to their native 
villages, which some of them no 
doubt, both from the English and 
American Colony have from time 
to time done ; as we know in fact 
that they have. 

This as I understand it, was one 
of the first ideas that gave origin to 
this Society, and as I said before, it 
was a political and moral necessity. 



Then came the kindred object 
which was more important because 
applicable to a much larger numbe? 
of persons, of providing a suitable 
home for that portion of the free 
colored population of this country 
that were desirous of emigrating to 
the land of their fathers. This at 
first, as I understand, for it was 
before my day, was an object that 
approved itself almost universally 
throughout the country, to the Souib 
as well as to the North, to the white 
as well as to the colored population. 
Every body seemed to think at first 
that this was a practicable, desirable, 
and most praiseworthy object. By 
degrees, I am sorry to say, jealousies 
crept in, prejudices, for so I must 
account them, arose ; and in pro- 
cess of time, it has come to pass 
that this Society has become, I must 
say, intensely unpopular with a 
large class of. the colored popula- 
tion whose interests and welfare 
were some of the prime objects of 
its foundation. 

I will not undertake on this occa- 
sion to discuss the foundation of 
these prejudices. I will not dwell up- 
on those, as they are called, oppres- 
sive laws, and that still more oppres- 
sive public sentiment in all parts of 
the country, which render the con- 
dition of the colored population in 
every partof the Union, one of dis- 
ability, discouragement, and hard- 
ship. In order to meet the objection 
to the operation of the Society 
which arises from the statement that 
it tends to co-operate with, and to 
strengthen these oppressive laws and 
this oppressive public sentiment, I 
will for argument sake, take it for 
granted that this legislation and this 
sentiment are correctly thus charac- 
terized ; that they are as oppressive, 
cruel, and tyrannical as they are 
declared to be. 

Taking this for granted, I ask in 



^ the name of common sense, in the 
^-name of humanity, does this state of 
things furnish any reason why the 
< free colored population of the coun- 
try, should be discouraged from 
leaving a state of things like this, 

and going to the land of their fath- 
er O 

ers, a continent of their own where 
no such legislation, where no such 
unfriendly public sentiment would 
exist; agreat and fertile land, aland 
that is inviting them to come and 
take possession of it, and in various 
parts of which there is everything 
that can attract, and reward the 
industry of man ? It seems to me 
that the objection which is urged to 
the Society, that it co-operates with 
that oppressive state of things here, 
furnishes the very strongest reason 
in favor of the emigration. Let us 
take a parallel case. Suppose any 
one had gone among that little 
company of persecuted christians in 
England, in the year 1608, who after- 
wards became the pilgrim church of 
Mr. Robinson atLeyden ; or suppose 
any one had gone in 1630 to the 
more important company of Gov. 
Winthrop, the great founder of 
Massachusetts ; had tried to excite 
their feelings against the projected 
emigration, had told them that Eng- 
land belonged to them as much as 
it did to their oppressors, had led 
them to stand upon their rights, and 
if necessary bleed and die for them; 
had depicted the hardships and suf- 
ferings of the passage, had painted 
in the darkest colors, the terrors of 
the wilderness into which they were ; 
about to venture ; would that have j 
been true friendship, would it have j 
been kindness, would it have been 
humanity ? Or to come nearer 
home, suppose at the present day one 
should go into Ireland, or France, 
or Switzerland, or Germany, or Nor- 
way, or any of the countries from 
which hundreds of thousands of 
winn. «ii h deprp.fffl&d, destitute hiui 



unhappy condition, are emigrating 
to the United States, to find a ref- 
uge, a home, a social position, and 
employment — suppose some one 
should go to them and try to stimu- 
late a morbid patriotism, a bitter 
nationality, telling them the country 
where they were born, belonged as 
much to them as to the more favor- 
ed classes, inducing them to stay 
where they were born, telling them 
that it was doubtful whether they 
would get employment in the new 
country, talking of the expenses, 
the diseases, the hardships of the 
poor emigrant, and in this way en- 
deavor to deter thein from this great 
adventure, which is to end in pro- 
curing a home and a position in 
the world, and an education for 
themselves and their children, would 
this be friendship, would this be 
kindness, would this be humanity ? 
But these are the appeals which are 
made to the free colored population 
of this country, and it is by appeals 
like this that the Society and the 
colony have become, as I am sorry 
to say I believe is the case, highly 
unpopular among them. 

But I must hasten on from this 
object of providing a home for the 
free colored population who wish to 
emigrate, to another which was a 
very considerable and leading ob- 
ject with the founders of this So- 
ciety, and that is the suppression of 
the foreign slave trade. It is griev- 
ous to reflect, it is one of the dark- 
est things that we read of in history, 
that contemporaneously with the 
discovery of this continent, and 
mainly from mistaken humanity to- 
wards its natives, the whole western 
coast of Africa was thrown open to 
that desolating traffic, which from 
time immemorial, had been carried 
on from the ports of the Medit- 
erranean, the Nile, and the Red Sea, 
and the shores of Eastern Africa. — 
It is -..I. more painful to reflect that 



it was precisely at the period when 
the best culture of modern Europe 
was moving rapidly towards its per- 
fection, that the intercourse of Af- 
rica with Europe, instead of proving 
a blessing proved a curse. Have you 
well considered, Mr. President, that 
it was in the days of Shakspeare, 
and Spenser, and Hooker, and Ba- 
con, and other bright suns in the 
firmament of the glory of England, 
that her navigators first began to 
go forth, and as if in derision, 
in vessels, bearing the venerable 
names of "the Solomon" and "the 
Jesus," to the coast of Africa to 
tear away its wretched natives 
into a state of bondage. It was at 
the very time when in England and 
France, the last vestiges of the feu- 
dal system were breaking down, 
when private war was put an end to, 
and men began to venture out from 
the walled towns and dwell in safe- 
ty in the open country, and to tra- 
verse the high roads without fear, 
it was then that these most polished 
nations began to enter into com- 
petition with each other, which 
should monopolize that cruel traffic, 
the African slave trade, the princi- 
pal agency of which was to stir up 
a system of universal hostility ; not 
merely between nation and nation, 
but between tribe and tribe, clan and 
clan, family and family, and often 
between members of the same house- 
hold ; for, I am sorry to say, it is no 
unprecedented thing for these poor 
creatures to sell their wives and 
children to the slave trader. 

In this way the whole western 
coast of Africa became like the 
Northern and Eastern coast before, 
one general mart for the slave trade. 
This lasted for three hundred years. 
At length the public sentiment of 
the world, in Europe and America, 
was awakened. Several of the col- 
onial assemblies in this country 



passed acts inhibiting the slave trade, 
but they were uniformly negatived 
by the Crown. The Continental 
Congress in 1776, denounced the 
traffic. The federal convention in 
1789 fixed a prospective period for 
its abolition in this country. The 
example was followed by the States 
of Europe. At the present day 
every christian and several of the 
Mahomedan powers have forbidden 
it; yet it is extensively carried on, 
and some authorities say that the 
number of slaves taken from Africa 
has not materially diminished ; but 
I hope this is not true. This state 
of facts has led several persons 
most desirous of putting an end to 
the traffic, to devise some new sys- 
tem, some new agency ; and all 
agree — there is not a dissenting 
voice on that point — that the most 
effectual, and in fact the only sub- 
stitute is the establishment of colo- 
nies. Wherever a colony is estab- 
lished on the coast of Africa under 
the direction of a christian power 
in Europe or America, there the 
slave trade disappears ; not merely 
from the coast of the colony, but 
from the whole interior of the coun- 
try which found an outlet at any 
point on that coast. In this way, 
from the most northern extremity of 
the French and English colonies 
down to the most southern limit of 
the American settlements, the slave 
trade has entirely disappeared. The 
last slave mart in that region, the 
Gallinas, has within a short time, I 
believe, come within the jurisdiction 
of the American colony of Liberia. 
Now, along that whole line of coast 
and throughout the whole interior 
connected with it, a line of coast, as 
I believe, not less than that from 
Maine to Georgia — from every port 
and every harbor of which the for- 
eign slave trade was carried on—with- 
in the memory of man, it has en- 



tirely disappeared. What, Congresses 
of sovereigns at Vienna, and Aix- 
la-Chapelie, could not do, what 
squadrons of war steamers cruising 
along the coast could not achieve, 
what quintuple treaties among the 
powers of Europe could not ef- 
fect by the arts of diplomacy, has 
been done by these poor little colo- 
nies, one of which at least, that of 
Liberia, has, in latter times, been 
almost without the recognition of 
this government, struggling into 
permanence by the resources fur- 
nished by private benevolence. (Ap- 
plause.) I ask what earthly object 
of this kind more meritorious than 
this can be named ? And what ca- 
reer is there opened to any colored 
man in Europe or America, more 
praiseworthy, more inviting than this, 
to form as it were, in his own per- 
son a portion of that living cordon, 
stretching along the coast and bar- 
ring its whole extent from the ap- 
proaches of this traffic? (Applause.) 
But even the suppression of the 
slave trade, all important as it is, is 
but auxiliary to another ulterior ob- 
ject of still more commanding im- 
portance, and that is the civilization 
of Africa. The condition of Africa 
is a disgrace to the rest of the civ- 
ilized world. With an extent near- 
ly three times as great as that of 
Europe, its known portions of 
great fertility, teeming with animal 
and vegetable life, traversed by mag- 
nificent chains of mountains, East, 
and West, North and South, whose 
slopes send down the tributaries of 
some of the noblest rivers in the 
world, connecting on the North by 
the Mediterranean, with the ancient 
and modern culture of Europe, pro- 
jecting on the West far into the At- 
lantic ocean, that great highway of 
the world's civilization, running on 
the South East into a near proxim- 
ity to our own South American con- 
tinent, np»-n on thn Enst to the 



trade of India: and on the North 
East by the Red Sea and the Nile, 
locked closely into the Asiatic con- 
tinent, one would have thought that 
with all these natural endowments, 
with this noble geographical posi- 
tion, Africa was destined to be the 
emporium, the garden of the Globe. 
Man alone in this unhappy conti- 
nent has dropped so far into arrears 
in the great march of humanity, be- 
hind the other portions of the human 
family, that the question has at 
length been started whether he does 
not labor under some incurable, nat- 
ural inferiority. In this, for myself, 
I have no belief whatever. 

I do not deny that among the nu- 
merous races in the African conti- 
nent, as among the numerous races 
in all the other •continents, there 
are great diversities, from the politic 
and warlike tribes upon the central 
plateau, to the broken down hordes 
on the slave coast, and on the banks 
of the Congo, and the squalid, half 
humanHottentot. Butdovou think 
the difference is any greater between 
them than it. is between the Laplan- 
der, the Gipsy, the Caknuc, and the 
proudest and brightest specimens of 
humanity in Europe or America? 
I think not. 

What then can b» the cause of the 
continued uncivilization of Africa ? 
Without attempting presumptuously 
to pry into the mysteries of Provi- 
dence, I think that adequate causes 
can be found in some historical 
and geographical circumstances. 
It seems a law of human progress, 
which however difficult to explain, 
is too well sustained by facts to b« 
doubted, that in the first advances 
out of barbarism into civilization. 
the first impulses and guidances must 
come from abroad. This of course 
leaves untouched the great mystery 
who could have made a beginning: 
but still as far back as history or 
tradition runs, we do timi t\tnt thp 



6 



first guidance and impulse came 
from abroad. From Egypt and 
Syria the germs of improvement 
were brought to Greece, from 
Greece to Rome, from Rome to the 
North and West of Europe, from 
Europe to America, and they are 
now speeding on from us to the 
farthest West, until at length it shall 
meet the East again. To what ex- 
tent the aboriginal element shall be 
borne down and overpowered by 
the foreign influences, or enter into 
kindly combination with them, de- 
pends upon the moral and intellec- 
tual development of both parties. 
There may be such aptitude for im- 
provement, or the disparity between 
the native and foreign race may be 
so small, that a kindly combination 
will at once take place. This is 
supposed to have been the case 
with the ancient Grecian tribes in 
reference to the emigrants from 
Egypt and the East. Or the inapti- 
tude may be so great, and the dispar- 
ity between the natives and the for- 
eigners may be so wide that no such 
kindly union can take place. This 
is commonly supposed to be the 
case with the natives of our own 
continent, who are slowly and si- 
lently retiring before the inroads of 
a foreign influence. 

Now in reference to this law of 
social progress, there have been in 
Africa two most unfortunate difficul- 
ties. In the first place, all the 
of her branches of the human family 
that have had the start of Africa in 
civilization have, from the very dawn 
of history, been concerned in the 
slave trade, so that intercourse with 
foreigners, instead of being a source 
of mutual improvement to both par- 
ties, particularly to the weaker, has, 
in the case of Africa, only tended to 
sink them deeper intobarbarism and 
degeneracy of every kind. This has 
been one difficulty. Another is the 
climatH — this vast tHjuHlonnl ex- 



panse — this aggregate of land bej 1 
tween the tropics, greater than all 
the other parts of the globe together^ 
her fervid vertical sun, burning dowri 
upon the rank vegetation of her fern 
tile plains, and rendering her shore* 
and water courses pestiferous to : 
foreign constitution. This circum- 
stance also seems to shut Afric? 
out from the approaches of civiliza 
tion through the usual channelsi 
The ordinary inducements of gaim 
are too weak to tempt the merchau 
to those feverous shores. Nothing 
but a taste for adventure, approach 
ing to mania, attracts the traveller 
and when christian benevolenc< 
allures the devoted missionary to thi 
field of labor, it lures him too oftei 
to his doom. 

By this combination of influences 
Africa seems to have been shut ou 
from the beginning from all thos< 
benefits that otherwise result fron 
foreign intercouise. But now, marl 
and reverence the Piovidence c 
God, educing out of these disadvan 
tages of climate, (disadvantages a 
we consider them) and out of thi 
colossal, moral wrong — the foreig 
slave trade — educing out of thes 
seemingly hopeless elements of phy 
sical and moral evil, after Ion 
cycles of crime and suffering,- c 
violence and retribution, such a 
history no where else can parallel- 
educing, I say, from these almot 
hopeless elements by the blesse 
alchemy of christian love the ult 
mate means of the regeneration ( 
Africa, (applause.) 

The conscience of the Christia 
world at last was roused ; an end 
was determined should be put t 
the foreign slave trade, but not till 
had conveyed six millions of the clii 
dren and descendants of Africa tJ 
the Western Hemisphere, of whoil 
about one and a half millions hav 
passed into a state of freedom 
though born and ednc****". " 



iiibt, under circumstances unfavo- 
ble for moral or intellectual pro- 
ess, sharing in the main the bless- 
gs, and the lights of our common 
irisrian civilization, and proving 
emselves, in the example of the 
[berian colony, amply qualified to 
; the medium of conveying these 
essings to the land of their fathers. 

Thus you see at the very moment 
hen the work is ready to com- 
ence, the instruments are prepa- 
■d. Do I err in supposing that the 
ime august Providence which has 
ranged, or has permitted the'mys- 
rious sequence of events to which 
have referred, has also called out, 
id is inviting those chosen agents 
» enter upon the work ? Every 
ling else has been tried and failed, 
ommercial adventure on the part 
f individuals has been unsuccess- 
il ; strength, courage, endurance, 
most superhuman, have failed ; 
ell appointed expeditions fitted 
ut, under the auspices of powerful 
ssociations, and powerful govern- 
lents, have ended in the most ca- 
mitous failure ; and it has been 
roved at last, by all this experience, 
lat the white race of itself, cannot 
vilize Africa. 

Sir, when that most noble expe- 
ition, I think in 1841, was fitted out, 
uder the highest auspices in Eng- 
nd, to found an agricultural colony 
I the confluence of the Niger and 
le Chad, out of one hundred and 
fty white persons that formed a part 
fit, every man sickened, and all but 
tree or four died. On the other hand, 
ut of one hundred and fifty colored 
len, that formed part of the expedi- 
on, only three or four sickened, and 
ley were men who had passed some 
ears in the West Indies, and in 
lurope, and not one died. I think 
lat fact, in reference to the civil iza- 
on of Africa is worth. I had almost 
aid, all the treasure, and all the 
nffering of that ill-fated expedition. 



Sir, you cannot civilize Africa,—' 
you Caucasian — you proud white 
man — you all-boasting, all-daring, 
Anglo-Saxon, you cannot do this 
work. You have subjugated Eu- 
rope ; the native races of this coun- 
try are melting before you us the 
untimely snows of April beneath a 
vernal sun ; you have possessed 
yourselves of India, you threaten 
China and Japan; the farthest isles 
of the Pacific are not distant enough 
to escape your grasp, or insignificant 
enough to elude your notice: but 
this great Central Africa lies at your 
doors and defies your power. Your 
war steamers and your squadrons 
may range along the coast, but 
neither on the errands of peace, nor 
on the errands of war, can you pene- 
trate into and long keep the interior. 
The God of nature, for purposes in- 
scrutable, but no doubt to be recon- 
ciled with His wisdom and good- 
ness, has drawn a cordon across the 
chief inlets that you cannot pass. 
You may hover on the coast, but 
woe to you if you attempt to make a 
permanent lodgment in the interior. 
Their poor mud-built villages will 
oppose no resistance to your arms; 
but death sits portress at their unde- 
fended gates. Yellow fevers, and 
blue plagues, and intermittent poi- 
sons, that you can see as well as 
feel, hover in the air. If you at- 
tempt to go up the rivers, pestilence 
shoots from the mangroves that 
fringe their noble banks ; and the 
all-glorious sun, that kindles every- 
thing else into life and power, darts 
down disease and death into your 
languid frame. No, no, Anglo- 
Saxon, this is no part of your voca- 
tion. You may direct the way, y^u 
may survey the coast, you may point 
your finger into the interior ; but 
you must leave it to others to go 
und abide there. The God of na- 
ture, in another branch of his family, 
has chosen out the instruments of 



this great work — descendants of the 
torrid clime, children of the burning 
vertical sun — and fitted them by 
centuries of stern discipline for this 
most noble work — 

From foreign realms and lands remote, 

Supported by His care, 
They pass unharmed through burning 
climes, 

And breathe the tainted air. 

Sir, I believe that Africa will be civi- 
lized, and civilized by the descen- 
dants of those who were torn from 
the land. I believe it because I will 
not think that this great fertile con- 
tinent is to be forever left waste. I 
believe it because I see no other 
agency fully competent to the work. 
I believe it because I see in this 
agency a most wonderful adaptation. 

But doubts are entertained of the 
practicability of effecting this object 
by the instrumentality that I have in- 
dicated. They are founded, in the 
first place, on the supposed inca- 
pacity of the free colored population 
of this country and the West Indies 
to take up and carry on such a 
work ; and also on the supposed 
degradation and, if I may use such 
a word, unimprovability of the na- 
tive African races, which is pre- 
sumed to be so great as to bid defi- 
ance to anv such operation. 

Now, I think it would be very un- 
just to the colored population of this 
country and the West Indies to ar- 
gue from what they have done under 
present circumstances, to what they 
might effect under the most favora- 
ble circumstances. I think, upon 
the whole, all things considered, that 
they have done quite as well as could 
be expected; that they have done 
as well as persons of European 
or Anglo-American origin would 
have done after three centuries of 
similar depression and hardship. 
You will recollect, sir, that. Mr. 
Jefferson, in his valuable work, 
called " The Notes on Virginia," 



states in strong language the intel- 
lectual inferiority of the colored 
race. I have always thought that it 
ought to have led Mr. Jefferson to 
hesitate a little as to the accuracy of 
this opinion, when he recollected 
that in the very same work he was 
obliged to defend the Anglo-Ameri- 
can race, to which he himself, and to 
which so many of us belong, against 
the very same imputation brought 
by an ingenious French writer, the 
Abbe Raynal, whose opinions were 
shared by all the school of philoso- 
phers" to which he belonged. Why, 
it is but a very few years — I do not 
know that the time has now 
ceased — when we Anglo-Ameri- 
cans were spoken of by our brethren 
beyond the water, as a poor, degene- 
rate, almost semi-barbarous race. 
In the liberal journals of England, 
within thirty years, the question has 
been contemptuously asked, in refer- 
ence to the native country of Frank- 
lin, and Washington, and Adams, 
and Jefferson, and Madison, and 
Marshall ; of Irving, Prescott, Ban- 
croft, Ticknor, Bryant, and Cooper, 
Longfellow, and Hawthorne, and 
hosts of others: "Who reads an 
American book?" It seems to me in 
view of facts like this we ought to 
be a little cautious how we leap to 
the conclusion that the free colored 
African race is necessarily in a con- 
dition of hopeless inferiority. 

Then in reference to the other 
difficulty about the unimprovability 
of the African. It. is said that the 
Africans alone of all the branches of 
the human family have never been 
able to rise out of barbarism. Sir, I 
do not know that ; I do not think 
that anybody knows it. An im- 
penetrable cloud hangs over the 
early history of mankind in every 
part of the globe. We well know 
in reference to the whole North 
and West of Europe, and a great 
part of the South of Europe, 



9 



that it was utterly barbarous until 
the light of the Roman civilization 
shone in upon it, and in compara- 
tively recent times. We also know 
that in very e; rly times one of the 
native African races, I mean the 
Egyptians, attained a high degree of 
culture. They were the parents of 
all the arts of Greece, and through 
them of the ancient world. The 
Egyptians, were a colored race ; — 
They did not belong to the negro 
type : but still they were purely a 
colored race, and if we should judge 
of their present condition, as unim- 
provable as any of the tribes of Cen- 
tral Africa. Yet we find upon the 
banks of the Nile, the massive 
monuments of their cheerless cul- 
ture that have braved the storms 
of time more successfully than the 
more graceful structures of Rome 
and of Greece. 

It is true that some nations who 
have emerged from barbarism at a 
later period have attained the prece- 
dence over Africa, and have kept it 
to the present day ; but I am not 
willing to believe that this arises 
from causes so fixed and permanent 
in their nature, that no reversal, at 
no length of time, is to be hoped 
from their operation. We are led 
into error by contemplating things 
too much in the gross. There are 
tribes in Africa which have made 
"no contemptible progress in various 
branches ofhuman improvement. — 
On the other hand, if we look at the 
population of Europe — if we cast 
our eyes from Lisbon to Archangel, 
from the Hebrides to the Black 
Sea, — if for a moment we turn our 
thoughts from the few who are born 
to wealth, and its consequent advan- 
tages, culture, education, and that 
lordship over the forces of nature 
which belongs to cultivated mind, — if 
we turn from these to the benighted, 
oppressed, destitute, superstitious, 
ignorant, suffering millions, who 



pass their lives in the hopeless foil 
of the field, the factory, and the 
mine ; whose inheritance from gen- 
eration to generation is beggary; 
whose education from sire to son 
is stolid ignorance ; at whose daily 
table hunger and thirst are the stew- 
ards, whose occasional festivity is 
brutal intemperance; if we could 
count their numbers — if we could 
sum up together in one frightful 
mass, all their destitution of the 
comforts and blessings of life, and 
thus form an estimate of the practi- 
cal barbarism of the nominally civil- 
ized portions of the world, we 
should, I think, come to the conclu- 
sion that this supposed in-bred es- 
sential superiority of the European 
races does not really exist. 

If there be any such essential 
superiority, why has it been so late 
in showing itself? It is said that 
the Africans have persisted in their 
barbarism for four or five thousand 
years. Europe persisted in her bar- 
barism for three or four thousand 
years, and in the great chronology 
of Divine Providence, we are taught 
that a thousand years are but as one 
day. Sir, it is only ten centuries 
since the Anglo-Saxons, to whose 
race we are so fond of claiming 
kindred, were as barbarous and 
uncivilized as many of the African 
tribes. They were a savage, ferocious, 
warlike people ; pirates at sea, ban- 
dits on shore, slaves of the most 
detestable superstitions; worshiping 
idols as cruel and ferocious as them- 
selves. And, as to the foreign slave 
trade, it is but eight centuries, and 
perhaps less, since there was as 
much slave trade in proportion, 
upon the coast of Great Britain as 
in the Bight of Benin at the present 
day. The natives of England eight 
I centuries ago, were bought and sent 
I to the slave marts, in the south and 
west of Europe. At length the light of 
Christianity shone in; refinement, 



10 



civilization, letters, arts, and by de- 
grees ail the delights, all the im- 
provements of life followed in their 
train, and now we talk with the 
utmost self complacency of the 
essential superiority of the Anglo- 
Saxon race, and look down with 
disdain upon those portions of the 
human family, who have lagged a 
little behind us in the inarch of civ- 
ilization. 

Africa at the present day is not in 
that state of utter barbarism, which 
popular opinion ascribes to it. 
Here again we do not sufficiently dis- 
criminate. We judge in the gross. 
Certainly there are tribes wholly 
broken down by internal wars, and 
the detestable foreign slave trade ; 
but this is not the character of the 
entire population. They are not 
savages. Most of them live by agri- 
culture. There is some traffic be- 
tween the coast and the interior. 
Many of the tribes have a respecta- 
ble architecture, though of a rude 
kind, but still implying some pro- 
gress of the arts. Gold dust is col- 
lected : iron is smelted and wrought; 
weapons and utensils of husbandry 
and household use are fabricated ; 
cloth is woven and dyed ; palm oil 
is expressed ; there are schools ; 
and among the Mahomedan tribes 
the Koran is read. You, Mr. Presi- 
dent, well remember thai twenty one 
years ago, you and I saw in one of 
the committee rooms of yonder Capi- 
tol, a native African, who had been 
40 years a field slave in the West 
Indies and in this country, and 
wrote at the age of 70 the Arabic 
character, with the fluency and the 
elegance of a scribe. Why, Sir, to 
give the last test of civilization, 
Mungo Park tells us in his journal 
that in the interior of Africa law- 
suits are argued with as much ability, 
as much fluency, and at as much 
length as in Edinburgh. (Laughter 
and applause.) 



Sir, I do not wish to run into para- 
dox on this subject I am aware that 
the condition of the most advanced 
tribes of Central Africa is wretched, 
mainly, in consequence of the slave 
trade. The only wonder is, that wiih 
this cancer eating into their vitals 
from age to age, any degree of civili- 
zation whatever can exist. But de- 
graded as the ninety millions of 
Africans are, 1 presume you might 
find in the aggregate, on the conti- 
nent of Europe, another ninety 
millions as degraded, to which each 
country in that quarter of the ofi.be 
would contribute its quota. The 
difference is, and it is certainly an 
; II important difference, that in Eu- 
rope, intermingled with these ninety 
millions, are fifteen or twenty mil- 
lions possessed of all degrees of cul- 
ture up to tie very highest, whde in 
Africa there is not an individual 
who, according to our standard, has 
attained a high degree of intellectual 
culture; but if obvious causes for 
this can be shown, it is unphilo- 
sophical to inter from it an essential 
incapacity. 

But the question seems to me 
to be put at rest, by what we all 
must have witnessed of what has 
been achieved by the colored race 
in this country ami on the coast of 
Africa. Unfavorable as their posi- 
tion has been for any intellectual 
progress, we still all of us know that 
they are competent to I he common 
arts and business of life, to ihe in- 
genious and mechanical arts, to 
keeping accounts, to the common 
branches of academical and profes- 
sional culture. Paul Cuffee's name 
is familiar to everybody in m\ part 
of the country, and I am sure you 
have heard of him. He was a man 
of uncommon energy ami force of 
character. He navigated to Liver- 
pool his own vessel, manned by a 
colored crew. His father was a na- 
tive African slave ; his mother was 



11 



a member of one of the broken 
down Indian tribes, some fragments 
of which still linger in the corners 
of Massachusetts. I have already 
alluded to the extraordinary attain- 
ments of that native African Prince, 
Abdul Rahhaman. If there was 
evei a native born gentleman on earth 
he was one. He had the port and 
the air of a prince, and the literary 
culture of a scholar. The learned 
Blacksmith of Alabama, now in Li- 
beria, has attained a celebrity scarce- 
ly inferior to his white brother, who 
is known by the same designation. 
When I lived in Cambridge a few 
years ago I used to attend, as one 
of the. Board of Visitors, the exami- 
nations of a classical school, in w Inch 
there was a colored boy, the son of 
a slave in Mississippi, 1 think. He 
appeared to me to be of pure Afri- 
can blood. There were at the same 
time two youths from Georgia, and 
one of my own sens, attending the 
same school. I must say that this 
poor negro boy, Beverly Williams, 
was one of the best scholars at the 
school, and in the Latin language 
he was the be.-t scholar in his class. 
These are instances that have fallen 
under my ow n observ tion. There 
art others I am told which show still 
more conclusively the colored race 
lor every kind of intellectual culture. 
Now look at what they have 
done on the coast of Africa. Think 
of the facts that were spread 
before you in that abstract of the 
Society's doings, which was read 
i; ;- e\ en n r. It is only 25 
years since that little colony was 
founded under the auspices of this 
Society. In that time what havi the* 
done; or rather let me ask what 
have ilvy not done ? They have es- 
tablishe I a well-organized c.on>titu- 
tiou ol Republic; n Govemrm tit, 
which is administered with abilny 
and energy in peace, and by the un- 
fortunate necessity of circumstances, 
also in war. They have courts of 



justice, modelled after our own; 
schools, churches, and lyceums. — 
Commerce is. carried on, the soil is 
tilled, communication is open to 
the interior. The native tribes are 
civilized ; diplomatic relations are 
creditably sustained with foreign 
powers, and ihe two leading pow- 
ers of Europe, England and France, 
have acknowledged their sovereignty 
and independence. Would the 
same number of persons taken prin- 
cipally from the laboring classes, of 
any portion of England, or Anglo- 
America, have done better than 
this ? 

Ah ! Sir, there is an influence at 
work through the agency of this 
Society, and other Societies, and 
through the agency of the colony of 
Liberia, and others which I hope will 
be established, sufficient to produce 
these and still greater effects. I m. an 
the influence of pure unselfish chris- 
tian love. Tins alter all is the only 
influence that never can fail. Mili- 
tary power will at linn s be resis- 
ted, and overcome. Commercial 
enterprise, however well planned, 
maybe blasted. State policy, how- 
ever deep, may be outwitted ; but 
pure, unselfish, manly, rather let 
me say heavenly love, never did, 
and in the long run never will 
fail, (applause.) It is a truth 
which this society ought to write 
upon its banners, that it is not polit- 
ical nor military power, but the 
moral sentiment, principally under 
the guidance and influence of reli- 
thiii has in all ages civili- 
zed the v\ or d \ m- , craft, 
mammon he in wait, and v\ atch 
their chance, but they cannot poison 
its vitality. Whatever becomes of 
the question of intellectual superior- 
ity. I should insult this audience, if I 
attemp ed to ar_< ne i tin 1 in i he im ral 
sentiments, the colon * ra< > stand 
upon an equality with us. 1 read a 
year or two ago in a newspaper an 
anecdote which illustrates this in 



12 



so beautiful and striking a manner 
that, with your permission I will 
repeat it. 

When the news of the discovery 
of gold reached us from California, 
a citizen of the upper part of Louis- 
iana, from the Parish of Rapides, 
for the sake of improving his not 
prosperous foitunes, started with his 
servant to get a share, if he could, 
of the golden harvest. They re- 
paired to the gold regions. They 
labored together for a while with 
success. At length the strength of 
the master failed, and he fell dan- 
gerously sick. What then was the 
conduct of the slave in those far off 
hills? In a State whose constitu- 
tion did not recognize slavery, in 
that newly gathered and not very 
thoroughly organized state of so- 
ciety, what was his conduct ? As 
his master lay sick with the typhus 
fever, Priest and Levite came, and 
looked upon him, and passed by ou 
the other side. The poor slave stood 
by him, tended him, protected him; 
by night and by day his sole com- 
panion, nurse, and friend. At length 
the master died. What then was 
the conduct of the slave in those 
distant wastes, as he stood by him 
whom living he had served, but who 
was now laid low at his feet by the 
great Emancipator? He dug his 
decent grave in the golden sands. 
He brought together the earnings of 
their joint labor ; these he deposit- 
ed in a place of safely as a sacred 
trust for his master's family. He 
then went to work under a Califor- 
nian sun to earn the wherewithall to 
pay his passage home. That done, 
he went back to the banks of the 
Red River, in Louisiana, ani laid 
down the little store at the feet of 
his master's widow. — (Applause.) 



Sir, I do not know whether the 
story is true, I read it in a public 
journal. The Italians have a prover- 
bial saying of a tale like this, that if 
it is not true it is well invented. 
This Sir is too good to be invented. 
It is, it must be true. That master 
and that slave ought to live in mar- 
ble and in brass, and if it was not 
presumptuous in a person like me 
so soon to pass away and to be for- 
gotten, I wouid say their memory 
shall never perish. 

Fortunati am bo ! si quid mea rarmina pos- 

sint, 
.Nulla dies unquam memori vos eximet xvo. 

There is a moral treasure in 
that incident. It proves the capa- 
city of the colored race to civil- 
ize Africa. There is a moral worth 
in it, beyond all the riches of Cali- 
fornia. If all her gold — all that she 
has yet yielded to the indomita- 
ble industry of the adventurer, and 
all that she locks from the cupidity of 
man, in the virgin chambers of her 
snow-clad sierras — were allmoulten 
into one vast ingot, it would not, in 
the sight of Heaven, buy the moral 
worth of that one incident. (Ap- 
plause.) 

Gentlemen of the Colonization 
Society, I crave your pardon for this 
long intrusion upon your patience. I 
have told you — pardon that word, 
you knew it before — I have reminded 
you of the importance of the work, 
of the instrumentality by which it is 
to be effected, of the agents chosen 
as I think in the councils of Heaven 
to carry it into effect; and now what 
remains for us, for every friend of hu- 
manity, but to bid God speed to the 
undertaking? 

[The honorable gentleman resum- 
ed his seatamidst loud and long con- 
tinued applause.] 



Note.— I perceive from a note to the foregoing speech as republished in the Col- 
onization Herald, that, m speaking from memory of the Expedition to the Niger in 
1S41, 1 considerably overrated the mortality among the whites. Nearly every white 
member of the expedition was disabled by sickness from the performance of duty; but 
forty only died. This mortality, however, required the immediate abandonment of 
the enterpnze. — E. E. 

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